Birthday
by Dragonsmaidan
Summary: They throw him a party for his birthday every year. What will Spencer Reid get this time?


**Birthday**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Criminal Minds except for the first four seasons on DVD.**

**A/N: This episode was inspired by the episode **_**The Instincts. **_**Enjoy.**

"_It's weird, some things never go away. When I was a kid every boy I knew had piles of dinosaur toys."_

"_Not you?"_

"_I had books and notebooks my mom filled hundreds of them with poems by W.S. Merwin—songs by Bob Dylan. She liked it when I memorized them. She was convinced they were watching us and writing songs about our lives."_

Morgan remembered the conversation from almost a year ago and a grin came to his face at his brilliant idea. _You are never too old for toys. _ He thought as he walked into the toyshop.

--

Reid was still not really sure how to deal with the office birthday parties the team held for him every year.

It still embarrassed him a bit when people did nice things for him especially when his friends did those nice things.

"Here you go kid," Morgan said plopping a big brightly wrapped present on Reid's desk and startling him out of his reverie.

"Thanks," Reid said blushing. The smile Morgan gave him didn't help his pink cheeks; it was the same smile he used on girls at clubs, bars, and all the other places where Morgan made girls swoon.

"How big do you think the cake will be this year?" Morgan asked conversationally.

"I don't know, but I hope not as big as last year." Reid said referring to the giant book shaped cake Garcia had made him. Garcia's cakes always kept him amused, always a different shape and size, always something that reflected him and his personality.

Reid heard Garcia's laughter and the squeak of the wheels on the handcart, which usually held AV equipment but was always cleaned off once a year so she could present his cake. He leaned around Morgan and saw Garcia talking with JJ and Prentiss as she pushed the cart with several shaped masses on it.

"Happy birthday boy genius," Garcia said giving Reid a big hug as soon as he was in arms length.

When she released him he got a good look at his cake, or cakes in this case, and his smile grew even wider. Seven smallish, but by no means tiny, cakes were in front of him all in the shape of numbers with a small round pie in between the first two number cakes.

"Do you like?" she asked a little nervous. "I thought about just making one big pie, but you can't have pie for a birthday." She laughed. "Well, I suppose you can." She looked at his cakes with the tiny pie in between.

"I love it Garcia, thank you." Reid said genuinely.

"You have to open the presents before you can eat the cake. Open mine first." Prentiss said handing Reid her present as Rossi and Hotch came out of their offices to join the party at Reid's desk.

Reid carefully unwrapped the present making sure not to rip the wrapping paper. Inside he found a framed picture of all of them that Prentiss had taken one afternoon when she was trying out a new camera lens she had bought herself for Christmas.

"I thought you could use a picture of your family to brighten up your desk." She smiled.

"Thank you so much," Reid said putting the picture right next to his computer.

"Mine next." Garcia said pushing a package toward him.

After unwrapping all but one package Reid had a dozen new pairs of socks to "mismatch as he pleased." A few new books, surprisingly none of which he owned or had read. Some new ties and a new sweater to replace his old threadbare one that he was so fond of, but was full of holes from wear, tear, and time.

Reid picked up the last box and grinned at the childish wrapping paper as he began to carefully open it like he had the others.

"Come on," Morgan said growing impatient as Reid started to pull at the tape on the second side of the box, he wanted to see the Kid's face when he saw what was inside. "Just rip it open."

Reid didn't really want to rip the paper since he liked to keep them and put pieces of each one in a scrapbook with the date, the gift, and who give him the gift written by the paper, but he supposed he could rip the paper like a little kid just this once.

As he pulled away the last of the wrapping paper he found he was staring at a plain white box. He briefly hoped Morgan hadn't decided to pull the box in a box in a box gag like he had done a few years ago. However, when he split the tape on the box open and peered inside his jaw dropped. There were no other boxes inside just a jumbled messy pile of dinosaur toys of every shape and size.

"I remember you said you didn't have any as a kid and you're never too old to play with dinosaurs."

Reid didn't know what to say. He'd always envied other boys and their dinosaurs to him they had meant normalcy, something he had never had as a child. He stared down into the box and touched one of the toys gently as if it might run away or disappear.

One of the reasons Reid was still embarrassed about these yearly birthday celebrations after all this time was they showed how much his friends knew and cared about him, how much they paid attention to him and his interests, which still made him a little uncomfortable sometimes. _But it's something_ he thought, _I'm finally starting to get used to._


End file.
